Search form

Search form

Data on 1,014 diabetes patients with a history of myocardial infarction showed that those who took low-dose supplements of omega-3 fatty acids had a reduced risk of ventricular arrhythmia-related events compared with those who took a placebo. The findings appear in Diabetes Care.

Related Summaries

Data from 2005 to 2008 on 2,400 pregnant women who took omega-3 supplements found they did not have a statistically significant lower risk of gestational diabetes or preeclampsia compared with women who took vegetable oil pills, suggesting that omega-3 intake may not prevent the onset of such conditions. The findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Diabetes patients who used an n-3 fatty acid-fortified margarine had an 84% decrease in ventricular arrhythmia-related events compared with those who took a placebo, according to an analysis in Diabetes Care. Researchers said n-3 fatty acid supplementation also appeared to have protective properties against cardiac arrest and sudden death.

Participants who took omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplements had better lipid profiles, adiponectin levels and insulin resistance markers compared with those who took a placebo, a study in the European Journal of Lipid Science and Technology found. The findings suggest that increased intake of omega-3 PUFAs may help improve insulin resistance markers linked to diabetes, experts said.

Omega-3 compounds may reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, two studies in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggest. According to one of the studies, those with high levels of omega-3 fats found in fish were one-third less likely to develop the disease than those with low levels. The other study found a lower risk for people whose diets were high in an omega-3 fat found in plants. However, experts said neither study proves that omega-3 fats directly reduce the risk of diabetes.

Dutch researchers found that eating fish does not appear to lower the risk of heart failure. However, evidence suggests that the omega-3 fatty acids from fish, particularly EPA and DHA, can help reduce heart rate, blood pressure, triglyceride levels and arrhythmias to lower the risk of heart attack and other types of heart disease.